Detachment of the retina from the rear wall of the eye as a result of injury or aging or disease is a common cause of blindness that can be corrected with varying degrees of success using contemporary surgical techniques. For example, small tears or holes that initially appear in the retina may be treated by laser photocoagulation techniques that rely upon forming small burns and scarring sites on the retina using focused laser light on target sites around the holes and tears. Alternatively, cryopexy or freezing local sites on the back of the eyeball causes similar scarring sites that promote scarified adhesion of the retina to the back wall of the eye. However, where the retina has pulled away from the back of the eye, it must be repositioned against the back wall of the eye to squeeze out fluid and reposition the retina in order for a scarified adhesion to successfully reattach the retina. A gas bubble may be injected into the eye to urge the retina against the back wall of the eye while the scarring takes place. In more complicated detachments of the retina, a silicone rubber pad or band may have to be installed against the back side of the eye in order to indent the back wall and thereby form contact with the retina at locations that can then support scarified adhesions using laser photocoagulation focused at such sites. These techniques tend to be effective but disabling to the patient who may have to remain in fixed head positions as much as possible for several days before and after the surgery to promote proper repositioning of the retina while scarified adhesions form to retain the retina in position against the back wall of the eye. Also, the injection of a gas bubble into the eye is effective substantially only for use with retinal detachments that occur in the upper regions of the eye since the gas bubble can be conveniently positioned only near the upper regions in reliance upon its buoyancy in the vitreous fluid in the eye, and in reliance upon the patient being able to position the head to assure orientation of the gas bubble adjacent the detached portion of the retina.